Tuesday, August 23, 2011

30 years of the music industry in 30 seconds

I was recently having a conversation about changes in the music industry and while researching the topic I discovered this pie chart. This is U.S. based only. Data for markets in other parts of the world are probably similiar.

"The music industry has changed drastically over the past 30 years. The various music formats–from vinyl records, to 8-track, to cassette, to CD, and then to digital downloads–show a number of transitions over the past three decades. The wax and wane of these formats is shown in a rather interesting pie chart from Digital Music News. The animated pie chart maps each format between the years of 1980 to 2010 based on RIAA revenue figures. The chart is perhaps the best way possible to represent what’s going on in the music industry in 30 seconds or less."